Outdoor science school Director Suzy Clark discusses yerba buena, an herb found on the tour.

Outdoor science school Director Suzy Clark discusses yerba buena, an herb found on the tour.

Photo: Preston Gannaway, Special To The Chronicle

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Eco-adventure awaits in Mount Hermon treetops

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I'm dangling from a branch of a California live oak, looking down on the ground 40 feet below.

Technically, I climbed here, though not by shinnying up tree trunks and playing monkey bars across branches. This was a page out of the old arborists' book, a straight vertical ascent using ropes and friction knots.

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"There isn't a recreational tree climbing program in California," Clark says as she gathers her rope and harnesses, "so this is about getting the word out and showing people what an enjoyable experience it is."

Indeed, a healthy sense of adventure is more important than physical strength. You're clipped into a harness at all times, and it takes only a moderate amount of sweat to pull yourself up thanks to a rope system - and particularly, the Blake's hitch knot - that uses friction and your body weight to ascend and descend.

It's the same system used by arborists, and the payoff is a close-up view of the canopy line.

Once you're back on firm ground, the day continues with either a foraging tour or a walk in the nearby sand hills. There are only 3,600 acres of sand hills in the world - think soft beach sand at the top of a mountain - and most of them are found in the Santa Cruz range.

Foraging tour

But it's the foraging tour that provides a comprehensive look at the area's unique and compact geography. There are four ecosystems within Mount Hermon and the adjacent Henry Cowell State Park - the aforementioned sand hills, which sit at the highest elevation, followed by a mixed coniferous ecosystem, the redwood forest, and finally, the creek aquatics along the San Lorenzo River.

The live oak that I had just ascended and its neighboring Douglas firs are part of the mixed coniferous, or mixed evergreen, ecosystem, which features plenty of shade-growing, moisture-loving plants and grasses because of the brisk mornings and evenings.

As we walk back toward the car, I notice some miner's lettuce just off the path. I'd been introduced to the wild plant years ago during a foraging tour through San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, and it turns out to be the first edible plant that Clark and I harvest on the tour.

Miner's lettuce is abundant in California, with plants that vary from round to kidney-shaped, with a triangular tip. Its mild taste and crisp texture make it a fantastic salad green, and so we pluck a few leaves and tuck them into a plastic bag.

The lettuce is soon joined by a few leaves of yerba buena, a member of the mint family. Here, Clark reaches into her backpack and pulls out a paper coffee cup and a Thermos of hot water. Before long, I have my own tisane, a wonderfully fragrant drink to sip as we take our hike across the road and into Henry Cowell State Park.

We're still in the company of pines and oaks, of Douglas firs and ponderosa pines. The former might be better associated with Christmas, but they're abundant - and edible. Nibble on the spring tips of the Douglas fir needles, and you'll get not only that earthy evergreen flavor but also tart lemon and mint notes.

"You can eat your Christmas tree," Clark says with a smile.

Redwood ecosystem

We walk by madrones and manzanita bushes, and are soon smelling buckbrush before we even pass the shrubs. We finish the tour in yet another ecosystem, that of the redwoods. Some of the trees have had their older growths burned out, probably from a natural fire, but resiliency is one of their defining features.

Clark pulls out our small bag of foraged greens, which has grown to include fiddlehead ferns and other delights. She gives them a quick rinse in water, and it's time to enjoy our spoils.

"I have one more drink," she says, and reaches into her backpack for a bottle of seltzer and a small jar of what looks like syrup. She mixes the two together, and even adds a few ice cubes that she'd been carrying in her pack.

I take the cup and give it a good whiff. It smells incredible, like a pine forest, like Christmas. It's soda made with Douglas fir simple syrup, and I can't help but smile. Not only can you eat your Christmas tree, but you can drink it, too.

If you go

ECO Tours ($50) are composed of two two-hour adventures - tree climbing followed by either a "hunt for edibles" or a hike on sand hills. Each tree-climbing portion is limited to eight participants; larger groups will be split up. Tours are offered Friday through Monday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Reservations can be made online. For more information, visit http://mounthermonadventures.com/eco-tours or call (831) 430-1239.